Magic trick with lasers/matches

Hello

There are a few magic tricks on the market where a match is ignited "magically". Sometimes that match is just held by the fingers, sometimes it is in a box. I don't know how these are done but I presume it's possible to do it with a laser (I know a lot about magic but not much about lasers).

Is this really feasible? I've seen matches ignited with green lasers but of course they are visible so it wouldn't work for the trick. I guess you could use an IR laser but are they small and powerful enough? Is the whole thing far too risky, given the potential damage to eyes or is solvable?

IR can easily do it. Higher power levels are available cheaply for IR. Focusing may be an issue.

AND YES there is greater potential for risk with an "invisible" laser!

What he said^

It is possible and can be incorporated into a small host.

Welcome to LPF :wave:

Thanks. All the "invisible" IR lasers I have seen do actually shine a visible white light. Is this avoidable? Or is it just there for aiming purposes?

The visible white light is only picked up by camera (it costs us near a thousand dollars to make white lasers (RGB), anything past 808nm is practically invisible.

I see, thanks. Sorry to ask ignorant questions which have probably been answered on this forum many times before, but do you need more than a diode and a power supply? For example do you need a lens?

You need an aixiz module to hold the diode
a focusing lens (one comes with the module)
A heatsink (size depends on the current being put through the diode)
A diode
A driver
A host
Batteries
And, most importantly, safety glasses for any close work.

I think no lasers are used in Magic shows.
It would be too dangerous..

I was thinking that these could use lasers

How to light a burnt match magically - YouTube
How to light a match with mental powers - YouTube

Watch that first video. There are three really big tip offs as to how he is doing that:

1) The first time around (the close up) pay attention to HOW the match relights. It "poofs" out the way a completely unlit match would. IE, the way a match with a total fresh tip lights, NOT the way something that had already been lit would "re-light"

2) The second time around, he lights the match, then shakes it unlit. Then his hand goes off screen and comes back on screen to place the match on the box. But when he shakes the match out, it hasn't burnt down the wood much, if at all. Basically, just the tip is black. When his hand returns on screen, he is holding a match with approximately 1 inch of the wood burnt.

So, what's going on? He has regular unlit tip matches that look burnt, but aren't. They still have the ignition tip intact, it's just all coloured black to look as if it is a used match.

Now, that's 50% of it, how is it actually lighting? He needs to very carefully position that match. It could be a high IR laser beam igniting it. It could also be a heating coil in the box itself. Who knows. That part is less exciting, and there are a whole number of ways that he could be pulling it off once you realize that this is a live virgin match.

Sure. The second one is more interesting.

But as regards the first one, I have done a lot of work on lighting matches remotely, using a nichrome heating wire (and in fact sell an ebook for a magic self-lighting candle) and I don't think it's possible to get the electronics and the power supply into a match box. Don't know whether you could get the laser equipment into such a space.

But for the second one, it could all be in the card box. Or anywhere, really.

baytree said:

But as regards the first one, I have done a lot of work on lighting matches remotely, using a nichrome heating wire (and in fact sell an ebook for a magic self-lighting candle) and I don't think it's possible to get the electronics and the power supply into a match box. Don't know whether you could get the laser equipment into such a space.

Click to expand...

I could get an IR laser into a box that size, all parts included. In fact, I have (minus the match box). Take a look at the Pico Sniper Shot from my signature, or check out this:

video-2011-04-23-00-35-00.mp4 - YouTube

I don't think there are any lasers involved. There are many chemicals that ignite shortly after being exposed to air. Dip the match in there, and hold it in front of the camera - magic

Yes you could be right. Although I think he says somewhere that no chemicals are involved. Also, this would not be a practical effect for real-life performing, if you have to secretly dip the match in something a few seconds before it ignites.
On the other hand this is at the moment only a youtube video, not a marketed effect, so maybe it's one of those internet-only tricks.

e-cigs use a wire coil that heats up to vaporize the liquid. Perhaps you could hide this coil and a tiny LiPo like from those mini RC helicopters in a match box, along with a switch.

Plus, if it shorts out, the matchbox might magically burst into flames too

I'm calling BS on this even counting as a magic trick. There are a million ways this could be easily accomplished. In 25 seconds, with no prep, I was able to pull it off with a laser.

In my video, you can see the IR a bit, but if I had used a slightly higher wavelength diode, you wouldn't have.
VIDEO0004-edit2.3gp - YouTube